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Girls STEAM Ahead at the Danforth Center

Wednesday, 24 June 2015On Friday, June 19 excitement filled the auditorium at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center as the lights began to dim for the closing ceremony of the 2015 Girls STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) Ahead program. Eager legs wiggled in their chairs as the Girl Scouts CEO, Bonnie Barczykowski welcomed the girls and their families to the Danforth Center to review what the Girls Scouts had been discovering throughout the week.

“We were so happy that we could be involved with this program,” said Betsy Boedeker, BioBench CRO Coordinator, Center for Plant and Life Sciences of St. Louis Community College. “We hope everyone involved had fun and learned something new! We look forward to assisting in future offerings of this type of outreach.”

With women only accounting for 20 percent of students graduating with their bachelor’s degrees in engineering, computer science and physics, the Danforth Center is encouraged by the interest of the first year Girls STEAM Ahead program. Female scientists from the Danforth Center worked alongside the Girl Scouts to teach and mentor the importance of STEAM in fun and unique ways to inspire future careers in these evolving fields.

“The women scientists of the Danforth Center tremendously enjoyed three days of art and science together with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri,” said Toni Kutchan, Ph.D., vice president for research at the Danforth Center. “The inaugural STEAM program generated excitement and enthusiasm all around. The future looks bright for science, technology, engineering and math careers for these young women and girls!”

During the closing ceremony, each Girl Scout group had designated representatives from their age group take the stage to highlight several projects that were successfully completed.

“I learned that the head of broccoli has little buds that are actually flowers, but they haven’t blossomed yet,” stated a small but mighty voice of a representative from the Brownie group (grades 2–3) who studied art, science and plants at the closing ceremony.

Next, the Junior group (grades 4–5) took the stage to describe their week of hands-on projects with the Danforth Center mentors. This age group had the opportunity to focus on capturing plants in action with Raspberry Pi computers with guidance from their mentors. “We put together a plant-sized photo booth from the tiny programming computer,” one Girl Scout said as her partner smiled with enthusiasm. The girls had an eventful week learning to solder and turning their photo booth images into a short movie.

"We were really excited to share our research and passion for science with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri," said Malia Gehan, postdoctoral fellow in the Mockler Lab at the Danforth Center. "The Junior group of Girl Scouts were extremely tech savvy. We explored the intersection of plant science and computer science using Raspberry Pi computers for time-lapse imagery. I look forward to future Danforth Center programs that promote and encourage young women in science."

The Cadette group (grades 6–8) smiled from ear to ear during their closing ceremony presentation showcasing their newfound experience with plants and lab tools such as beakers and microscopes and spectrophotometer measuring. Their group studied about the life of the leaf – what’s inside a leaf and how plants capture light. “Photosynthesis!” one of the girls exclaimed. “That’s what a plant goes through to convert light to energy.”

The high school group (grades 9–12) concluded the ceremony with an explanation of the CSI-style case they solved by understanding DNA. This group spent the week learning about many complex plant science topics such as micropipetting, DNA replication, extracting, modeling and isolating, agarose gel electrophoresis and foldoscopes. The experiments this group conducted were intended to spark interest and passion for creatively solving problems related to STEAM that might influence their future career choices.

Girls STEAM Ahead was more than a fun summer camp for the girls to enjoy. This program gave the Girl Scouts the opportunity to connect with leading female scientists at the Danforth Center. The Center’s scientists seized this opportunity to connect with and inspire young minds to think BIG about their future and the diverse roles they can aspire to whether it’s a successful engineer, a mathematician, or even a scientist at a world-class research facility.

“I am incredibly impressed by the accomplishments of the girls who attended Girls STEAM Ahead,” said Bonnie Barczykowski. “One day, these girls will credit their experiences in this program as the catalyst for their love of science. We are so thankful for community partners like the Danforth Center for dedicating their time and efforts to the next generation of scientists.”

To learn more about the Girls STEAM Ahead program, read the article from St. Louis Public Radio, HERE.